Spring Dress and Wild Flowers
by Dianakit12
Summary: Kane's finally going to get some peace over his daughter Rayne's death. It won't be what he expected. With him, it never can be. Rated T for some cursing


**A/N: This goes along with a story me and Moon are working on (: Read it if you want. Kane is visiting his daughters grave after roughly 10-12 years of her being dead after the fight for the Capitol. Basically, she was a vampire among other things, her father as well. If you get it, great! :D If ya don't, maybe I'll explain. This had to be written, mostly so Kane could finally feel at peace with his daughters death and get on with his life. **

He could do nothing but stare at the flowers he'd managed to gather that now laid on the small mound of grass. Aside from a nearly rotten, small, wooden cross that had been placed at her grave years and years earlier, there was nothing to signify that a body had been buried here. He stared at the wild flowers, memories relentlessly flooding his mind, opening up the old wound fresh and wide open.

It wasn't until a few of the tears hit the purple and yellow flowers and soaked a dandelion that he realized he was crying. He wiped his arm across his face, cursing silently, "Dammit…" He muttered. "I shouldn't be crying. I _shouldn't_."

"But you are, Daddy."

Kane's head jerked up with a startling gasp. There in front of him, dressed in a plain spring dress, her hair pulled back into a loose pony tail with a raggedly cut piece of cloth was his daughter. She looked to be about five years old, exactly how old she _should_ have been had she died properly that day with her mother in 1864.

"R…Rayne?" Kane murmured, taking a step forward before he withdrew it and shook his head with a gasp as he felt more tears fall involuntarily.

Rayne walked forward and grasped his hand, smiling up at him. "You have my baby brother and sister to take care of, Daddy. I'm happy now, I am." She assured him with an even wider smile.

Kane looked at her and suddenly broke down, falling to his knees with a cry of what sounded like pain. "You shouldn't…. you shouldn't have died! I should have been there with you… I should have been protecting you!" Whether he meant that day in 1864 or the day she died fighting for the Capitol, he couldn't figure out and didn't care to. He should have been there regardless.

"Daddy, it's not your fault." Rayne said in a soft tone of voice, that child-like innocence ringing loud and clear to him. That child-like innocence she lost the day Sarah died, the day the Volturi found her, the day he left their house for that _damned _war!

The more she spoke, the more he cried. He could feel her hand on his shoulder, steady and just…there. Memories came unbidden to him, reminding him of what he'd lost.

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"_Daddy! Daddy! Look what I found!"_

_Kane looked up, wiping a bead of sweat from his brow and jammed the pole into the ground. The small bundle of fur encased in Rayne's arms wasn't missed by him, despite how tired he was. Sarah wouldn't miss it either, but that wasn't a bet he was willing to make with anyone. He grabbed the small scrap of fur from Rayne's arms and held it in his hands. "Where'd ya find this, Rayne? He's still a baby," Kane observed, looking closely at the cream colored kitten she'd produced from the wood work._

"_He was…um…" She fidgeted, unwilling to meet his eyes. "He was in the woods."_

_Kane laughed softly, holding the mewling kitten in one hand and ruffling Rayne's hair with the other. "Well, c'mon, let's take 'im back to his momma. I think he's gettin' hungry." With a small frown, Rayne nodded and held her hands out. Carefully Kane posited the kitten back in his daughter's hands and let her lead the way. _

_A black and white cat was curled up inside a small hole at the base of a tree, tending to three other kittens. She looked up at them with a small hiss and then her eyes zeroed in on the kitten in Rayne's hand. She began to get up but Kane nudged his stubborn daughter forward and she quickly but carefully set the kitten back down near the larger cat. _

_With another hiss, the cat scratched at Rayne and she jerked away with a small yelp of surprise. Kane muffled his laughter and led her away, back towards the house. _

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Kane managed to remain clear eyed for a moment, long enough to look up at Rayne. She had a soft glow about her, nothing like he'd seen before despite all the things they'd run into. She gave him a smile and his gaze dropped back to the flowers, moving just slightly in the wind. Rayne's dress, however, was unmoving and the only sound he could hear aside from the wind, was her humming a song. The song he'd sang to her as a child.

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_He managed to wrestle Rayne from her tangle of sheets and onto the bed he and Sarah shared. Sarah stirred, rolling over to look at Rayne and then up at her husband with a sleepy smile. Her only communication was to lay her hand on his arm that cradled their daughters head before she rolled back over, sleeping soundly again. _

_Softly he hummed a song before he began to sing it to his restless daughter who was staring up at him with red eyes, swollen from crying. _

_The stars are shining bright_

_Basking in the full moon's light_

_It's a cloudless Tennessee night_

_My sweet little fire sprite _

_Close your eyes my fire sprite_

_Gotta get some sleep tonight_

_You'll wake with the mornin' light_

_Sun'll be up, shinin' bright_

_He knew it wasn't much and fairly bad lyrics at that. Heck, from what he knew, a sprite was something that lived near water—a fairy tale he'd heard but never paid much attention to—but Rayne liked to play with fire and hated baths. It made sense to change the impish little sprite up a bit. Rayne looked up at him and her eyes were already closing, so Kane just hummed the song. _

_It wasn't long after that that she fell asleep, dozing quietly in his arms. With only the gentleness he knew with the little girl, he laid back down, laying her between him and her mother. With her thumb held tightly in her mouth and her other hand lying up above her like her hand raised, she slept peacefully for the rest of the night. _

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"You did what you had to do, Daddy. I understand that." Her saying it only made him feel worse and he was reduced to crying again, beating his fist into the ground. _I could have saved her. If I'd only been here and not in that building, chasing _him _I could have saved her…_

While the little hand that grabbed his arm and completely stopped him like only Eli or a vampire could do gave him pause, _she_ gave _him_ a stern expression that he'd only seen in a mirror. Him glaring at himself for something stupid he'd done. "Stop it, Daddy." It sounded too childish to be serious and he managed a laugh at it.

"Stop it? _Stop it? _Rayne, you're… you're…"

"I'm dead." The clarity with which she said it couldn't have been the five year old girl he was staring at but the young woman she'd grown to be over the years. "You keep blaming yourself for things you had no control over. You shouldn't be sad I'm gone—"

"I _shouldn't _be _sad_?" he snarled, knocking her hand back as he clumsily rose to his feet. "Rayne Noelle Colton! Dammit, don't you _ever _say that!" he glared at her as angrily as he could, "_Ever_!"

She held her hand close to her chest. He could feel the slight sting on his own where he'd knocked her back and his eyes dropped, "You were… you _are _my daughter…! Don't you ever tell me I can't be sad you're…you're dead." He choked back a sob and gritted his teeth, holding it back.

"You can be sad, Daddy, but you need to get past thinking Alexander or Andrea are going to turn out like me. I was raised by vampires, for God's sake." She laughed a little, "They'll be fine. We all know it."

"We?" He questioned, "Who…?"

"People, Daddy, people. Don't worry about that, just raise my baby brother and sister, 'kay?" She gave him a childish grin and stooped to give him a peck on the cheek. "Love ya, Daddy. I'll be watching, so don't screw up. I'm sure Momma would love to ring your neck if you did." She giggled and started to skip away but Kane sat up quickly, "Rayne, wait!"

She paused, sure enough, and turned to look at him, "Yes?"

"Are you… I mean, do you remember…"

"Everything? I do," She nodded solemnly and then gave him a smaller smile, "I don't regret anything and neither should you. You raised me pretty well. You and Eli both. Tell her I said hi, please."

A single tear raced down his cheek as he nodded, "I will," He couldn't bring himself to say good-bye, so he watched her skip off into the woods, disappearing with another breeze.


End file.
